Easy Mixed Berry Jam Recipe | No Added Pectin

This is my go-to jam recipe. It’s perfect every time. Not too sweet, just right. My husband and I really enjoy it on top of ice cream. Thanks for sharing an easy and yummy recipe!

Reader Dahlia

What Makes This a French-Style Jam?

The short answer is that this jam is packed with fruit, is lower in sugar than a traditional American-style jam, and doesn’t have extra pectin in it.

It’s thickened only with the natural pectin present in the fruit and the thickening you get from reducing the jam on the stove.

NOTE: By and large, traditional French jams are made using just one type of fruit, so this mixed berry version is a hybrid, but it’s a delicious hybrid!

So What Makes This Easy?

A full-on traditional French jam takes a couple of days to make. You let the fruit hang out in sugar for several hours to overnight, then there’s a quick boil.

Then there’s straining out the juices and reserving the fruit.

Then there’s another boil the next day.

So while old-school French jam isn’t hard to make, it does take some time.

This mixed berry jam recipe employs a much shorter maceration period–just enough to coax some of the juices out of the fruit–with a hard, fast boil so you can have jam the same day you think to yourself, “Hey, I think I’d like to make some jam!”

How to Make It

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need:

• mixed berries: I used a combination of fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. Although I only had 6 ounces of raspberries, the jam really tastes mostly like raspberry jam. Go figure!
• granulated sugar: Provides sweetness and “setability” as well as helping draw moisture out of the fruit to soften it and provide intense flavor
• lemon juice: Helps adjust the pH of the jam allowing it to set. Plus the lemon provides just the right amount of tartness to balance the sweetness

Procedure

This jam is really easy to make. I promise. Here’s how to do it.

1. Wash: Start with clean berries, so give them a nice rinse. Since I was using strawberries that were a lot larger than the blueberries and raspberries, I cut them in half or sometimes into quarters. This also has the added benefit of slicing open the plant cells making it much easier for the sugar to get the juices flowing
2. Macerate the fruit: This is just a fancy way of saying “let the fruit hang out in the sugar and lemon juice.” I think I let mine sit about 4 hours or so. Even an hour will help the juices flow, but the longer you can let the fruit macerate–up to 24 hours or so–the more intensely fruity your jam will be
3. Mash as much or as little as you want: You can leave all the fruit whole to have more of a preserve, but I like the texture of a jam, so I used my potato masher to mash up some of the fruit so I had pulpy, jammy goodness along with some whole fruit
4. Boil: Bring to a boil in a pan that’s wider than it is tall (if you have one). The larger surface area allows the jam to get to setting temperature more quickly and help avoid an overly cooked flavor to your jam. But if all you have is a narrower pot, go for it. Your jam will still be delicious even if it takes a bit longer to cook.

Macerating: It Really Is Easy

Here’s how you macerate, with photos! Super easy:

1. Start with rinsed berries. Cut down larger fruits so all the pieces are roughly the same size.
2. Combine the sugar and lemon juice with the fruit.
3. Stir to mix evenly.
4. Slap on a lid–you can use a silicone one like I did here, or cover with foil or plastic wrap, use a lidded container or be super French and cut a round of parchment to set down on top of the fruit–and walk away. Let the fruit do its thing. If it’s cool in your kitchen and you’re macerating for only a few hours (say up to 6 or so), it’s fine to do this at room temperature. During the summer, or if macerating for a longer period of time, refrigerate the macerating fruit

Tips for Success

This jam is fairly foolproof to make, but here are some tips for making sure it comes out beautifully every time you make it.

I strongly urge you to get a scale. That way, no matter what proportion of sugar to fruit you decide to go with, you’ll be able to accurately weigh it. I love my Escali Primo scale and use it every day.

The magic temperature for jam to set correctly is 220-221F. An accurate instant-read thermometer or candy thermometer takes the guesswork out of jam making.

Testing Jam without a Thermometer

If you don’t have a thermometer, you can put 2-3 small plates in your freezer and use that to test your jam. Here’s how:

1. After 10-15 minutes of boiling, put a spoonful of jam on one of the cold plates.
2. Put the plate back in the freezer for a minute or so.
3. Push the little blob of jam with your finger. If it wrinkles up, it’s good to go. If not, or if it’s still very runny, allow it to boil for another 5-10 minutes and then test again using another of the plates from the freezer.

French Jam Q & A

If you have any questions about this or any other recipe or post on the site, there are a few ways to get in touch.

You can leave a comment on the post, and I’ll be back in touch within 24 hours.

If your question is more pressing, don’t hesitate to email me, and I should be back in touch within 4 hours (unless I’m asleep) or often much more quickly than that.

Uses

I probably don’t really need to tell you how to use jam, but I do have some recipes this jam will go perfectly with. Take your pick, and enjoy!

My grits bread toasts up beautifully, and it would absolutely be delicious spread with butter and some of this jam.

Or spread it on these lovely spent grain English muffins or sprouted English muffins.

Use the jam as the filling in sandwich cookies. It would be pretty spectacular used to sandwich together my raspberry shortbread sandwich cookies.

Trifle is one of my favorite desserts. Use the jam as a layer in my Auntie Ev’s traditional English trifle recipe.

I hope you’ve learned something from this post or that you’ve decided to make the recipe.

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Thanks so much for spending some time with me today, friends. Enjoy this easy mixed berry jam, and have a lovely day.